HTC Athena Will Hit US Shores As Advantage X7501

HTC announced today that the US will be getting the HTC Advantage X7500 (codenamed Athena) as the HTC Advantage X7501. No carrier support needed, what with HTC selling its wares under its own global brand. Those in the US can pick up an unlocked Advantage this summer through your importer of choice. Nothing solid on the pricing details, but expect to pay a pretty penny, as the Euro version commands $500.

As far as features, the US version is basically the same as the Euro version, sans video conferencing camera. No biggie, since there’s no such thing as video conferencing here in The States. But still, it would be nice to know that you could use that video conferencing camera (if you ever travel to Europe). The detachable, magnetic keyboard design remains unchanged, and still awkward and clumsy. But the feature set on this mobile phone make this a sweet piece of kit. Windows Mobile 6.0 runs on a 624 MHz XScale processor, with 128 MB of RAM, 256 MB of ROM and 8 GB of storage space. A glorious 5-inch VGA screen displays the built-in GPS receiver’s directions and helps frame pictures on the 3-megapixel camera with flash. And radios include quad-band GSM, EDGE, and tri-band UMTS / HSDPA, with WiFi and bluetooth to round out the connectivity options. Throw in a TV-out port and you’ve got a true multimedia powerhouse. It’s really too bad that this thing has to come with that hideous detachable keyboard setup.